Janet Ruth Heller, Grammar Guru: Sentence Fragments in Fiction and Poetry for Children

Janet Ruth Heller is back for her second Grammar Guru post! In this ongoing column, she addresses common grammar problems and questions that she frequently encountered during her thirty-five years as a college professor of English literature, composition, creative writing, and linguistics. Here's Janet:          

Fragments are clauses or phrases that lack a subject, lack a verb, or lack both a subject and verb. Although most teachers ban sentence fragments in formal argumentative or informational writing, fragments add realism, develop characters, and create emphasis in fiction and poetry for children. However, overuse of fragments weakens literature.

Very young children often speak in short fragments. For example, in Judy Blume’s novel TALES OF A FOURTH GRADE NOTHING, two-and-a-half-year-old Fudge uses many incomplete sentences that include the word no. When he does not want to eat lamb chops, Fudge tells his parents, “No chops!” (chapter 3, p. 23). Later in the same scene, he also turns down corn flakes and shouts, “NO EAT!” (p. 24). These negative fragments show readers how uncooperative and rebellious Fudge can be.

Ordinary informal conversations of both adults and children are full of fragments. In Robert Kimmel Smith’s novel THE WAR WITH GRANDPA, the main character Peter resents having his grandfather take over Peter’s bedroom. The ten-year-old boy wants Grandpa to move out, so Peter commits hostile acts designed to get his room back. Here is dialogue between Peter and his grandfather that includes fragments (in bold).

“You think you’re one slippery customer, don’t you?” he [Grandpa] asked.  “Lots of tricks.”

“Not tricks,” I said.

“Oh, no? What would you call stealing my slippers then?”

“Gorilla warfare.” (chapter 20, p. 65)

Here, two family members argue about their relationship using several incomplete sentences. Note that Peter’s spelling mistake in using gorilla instead of guerilla emphasizes his immaturity.

When adults and children experience traumatic events, our lives often seem shattered. Sentence fragments can reflect this disintegration. In Kathryn Erskine’s novel MOCKINGBIRD (mok′ ing-bûrd), the first-person narrator is a ten-year-old girl with Asperger’s syndrome named Caitlin Ann Smith. Caitlin is a talented young artist, but her life is very difficult. Caitlin’s mother died of cancer, and her older brother Devon has just died after a shooting at his high school. Erskine uses many fragments (in bold below) to reflect the girl’s grief and confusion. “The gray of outside is inside. Inside the living room. Inside the chest. Inside me” (chapter 1, p. 2).

Similarly, teenaged Matt (short for Matilda) in Erskine’s novel QUAKING loses her mother due to an abusive father. A warmongering teacher gives her an F on her pacifist essay and causes her Quaker foster father Sam to lose his job. Toward the end of the novel, violent classmates beat up Matt, and the thugs have just firebombed the local Quaker meeting house, injuring her foster parent Sam. Matt does not know whether he will survive. Although she previously did not consider herself religious, Matt finds herself praying in fragments (in bold).

For Rory’s sake, let him live.

Jessica sobs.

For Jessica’s sake.

The sirens are louder.

For my sake. (Chapter 34, p. 234)

At this moment, Matt realizes that she feels like an integral part of this family, and when Sam hugs her, Matt brings her foster brother Rory and her foster mother Jessica into the hug. This moving scene marks a turning point in Matt’s life that brings the teenager out of her fear and isolation.

Because fragments create special emphasis, we writers need to use them sparingly. Having many incomplete sentences strung together weakens the special effect. If a speaker occasionally thumps the podium to highlight a statement, that is effective. However, if the speaker pounds the podium with every sentence, the pounding will lose its impact. Similarly, a paragraph with too many arbitrary fragments alienates readers. I recommend that writers check to make sure that every incomplete sentence in their fiction or poetry serves a clear and important function.

Janet Ruth Heller, President of the Michigan College English Association, wrote the poetry books EXODUS, FOLK CONCERT, and TRAFFIC STOP; the scholarly book COLERIDGE, LAMB, HAZLITT AND THE READER OF DRAMA; the middle-grade fiction chapter book THE PASSOVER SURPRISE; and the award-winning children’s book about bullying HOW THE MOON REGAINED HER SHAPE. Learn more at www.janetruthheller.com.











Coming up on the Mitten blog: Vacation! There will be no post next Friday. I'm taking one last summer vacation, and since I'm a #PitchWars mentor, my edits are due on my mentee's manuscript. Lots of reading and thinking and discussing over the next two weeks. Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Don't forget:
We want to celebrate with you! Patti Richards is gathering good news for the next round of Hugs and Hurrahs. Please email her your writing, illustrating, and publishing news by Monday, September 25th to be included. And send along your congrats: Patti's picture book manuscript, CUPINE'S PERFECT DANCE PARTNER, won an honorable mention in the 86th Annual Writer's Digest Contest in the children's/young adult fiction category!

Cheers!
Kristin Lenz